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AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION; 



WHAT? AND BY AVHOM? 



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LECTURE 



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R^ W/CUSHMAN. A.M., 

PRINCIPAL OF THE MOUNT VERNON LADIES' SCHOOL, BOSTON 






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BOSTON: 
JOHN P. JEWETT AND COMPANY. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 18.55, bj' R. \V. Ci'shmast, 
in the Clerk's OfRi;e of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 









PREFACE. 



The following lecture was delivered before the Colum- 
bian Association of Teachers, at the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution, at Washmgton. The author was, at the time, at 
the head of a French and English Protestant boarding 
school for young ladies in that city, where he was aim- 
ing to supply to Protestant families the means of an 
education which should be at once ornamental and 
thorough, withoiit the danger which is incurred in Ro- 
man Catholic schools. The mischief which so often 
results from the confidence of Protestants m the educa- 
tion of Nunneries, and the partiality sho\Aai by lead- 
ing fashionable American families for foreign boarding 
schools, had long been to liim a source of apprehension, 
and a mortification to his national pride. Perhaps some 
will think he has given too much indulgence to his feel- 
ings on those points in the following pages. Be that as 
it may, the convictions expressed as to what ought to 
•characterize the education of the females of our country, 
•and as to the agents to whom it should be intrusted, are 
still his convictions ; and the subject is too important, 
in his estimation, to be treated with any thing less than 
earnestness. He therefore gives publicity to t'hem by 
the publication of the lecture, in the hope that it may 
nid, to some extent, in the formation, the diffusion and 
pi'evalence of a healthy American sentiment on one o"'' 
the most important subjects Avhich can claim the atteD 
tion of the Christian and the patriot. 

6 All^to"n Street, Boston, Aug. 22, 1855. 



LECTURE. 



Woman, with man, divides the world. 
One half of all that makes up the sum 
of human interests belongs to her. Of 
the cares and sorrows of life she has 
ever had, in every state of society, her 
full and unenvied portion. And, how- 
ever much she has been restricted in 
the sphere of her presence and action, 
or debarred from those sources of intel- 
lectual energy to which the other sex 
have had access, — she has ever had, 
and ever loill have her full moiety of 
'nfluence over the destinies of the race. 
. And, indeed, so nearly omnipotent 
^ that influence, that it must ever re- 
nain for woman to say what man shall 

(3) 



4 AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 

be. To her the infant mind is first 
committed : and, for several of the most 
important years of life, it is under her 
guidance and impress almost entirely. 
Both the poAvers of the mind and the 
qualities of the heart are at her dis- 
posal : and, in all ordinary cases, as 
the twig of the nursery is bent by her 
plastic hand, the tree is inclined. 

Nor is her influence greatly lessened 
when her charge is grown up beyond 
the nursery. With respect to her own 
sex, it may be generally said, that the 
mother's best portrait is her daughter. 
And, though it must be acknowledged 
that a mother's influence is not always 
successful in securing a 807i from senti- 
ments and habits which she condemns; 
I believe that, in no instance, is any 
power, but that of the Almighty God, 
able to turn him from an injurious 
or vicious pursuit, which the mother 
approves. It was pronounced by the 



AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 5 

voice of inspiration, in the case of an 
ancient king of Judah, to be a cause 
fully adequate to account for the vicious 
career which he pursued, that " his mo- 
ther was his counsellor to do wickedly." 
On the other hand, almost every 
man of eminent intellectual and moral 
worth, whose life has left a beneficial 
impression on the character and condi- 
tion of his age, has been shown to have 
been indebted for his influence, in a 
very great measure, to the influence 
of woman — as mother or wife. And it 
will not be too much to say, — for the 
history of the world will bear out the 
assertion, — that if you would inquire, 
what the character of a new-born nation 
shall be, you must ash it of her ! Let 
woman remain in the rudeness of her 
untutored nature, and man, her com- 
panion, will be a savage. Let her be 
the patroness and example of a loose 
and voluptuous refinement; and her 

1^' 



6 AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 

masculine associate will become the 
devotee of effeminate vice. But let her 
influence be thrown into the scale of 
virtue and piety, intelligence, humanity 
and patriotism, and her nation's happi- 
ness and glory are secure. 

Now, for a considerable portion of 
her influence, we acknowledge her to 
be indebted to the endowments of her 
nature : but, for the cliaracter and ten- 
dency of that influence, she is indebted 
to her education. 

If, then, there is on the earth a 
nation which ought to be deeply inte- 
rested in the subject of Female Edu- 
cation, it is our own. Our national 
cliaracter is in the process of its forma- 
tion. All our national institutions — 
nay, our very constitution itself, is in 
the vacillating uncertainty of an expe- 
riment. And the question. Whether 
it shall succeed, — whether our nation 
shall continue free, and become great, 



AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 7 

and good, and wise, and happy, — must 
be determined, in a great measure, by 
the character which education shall 
instamp on our daughters, and wives, 
and mothers. Allow me, then, to im- 
prove the present occasion to speak 
of what I consider the Requisites of an 
American Female Education ; and to 
notice some things which appear to me 
to call for attention and reform in the 
notions and practices prevalent in this 
country in regard to female education. 
What is education ? What is proper 
to female education ? What should cha- 
racterize the education of the females 
of this country particularly ? 

1st. What is education ? 

Thomson tells us, it is that which 
''forms the common mind." This is 
partially true ; but it is less accurate 
and expressive than the word itself, 
when its etymology is attended to. 
Education, indeed, forms or moulds to 



8 AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION". 

a certain extent. But it does more. 
And it does it, not for the mind only, 
but for the body ; for the soul ; for the 
affections. We say it does more than 
form; it draivs forth, — as the word 
implies. But this is not all : it directs 
the powers to which it is applied to 
their appropriate objects, and gives 
them connexions. Man, on coming 
into life, though the most dependent, 
is one of the most isolated of living- 
things. He has — so to speak — no hands 
to work, no feet to walk, no tongue to 
talk, no mind to think, no heart to love 
or hate, no memory to rejoice or sor- 
row, and no experience to hope or 
fear. He is but a lump of capabilities. 
These capabilities are to be, like so 
many cords, unravelled and drawn out; 
and by them he is to be connected to 
the world, to society, to the past, to the 
future, to God, and to the life to come. 
So that, from being the most isolated, 



AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 9 

and, therefore, the most helpless, he 
hecomes the most comiected, and there- 
fore the most variously powerful, oi 
capable of all creatures on earth. 

In this view, the process of education 
begins very early. It begins with the 
light which visits the sense of sight. 
It begins with the hand of care which 
visits the sense of touch. It begins 
with the ministry of maternal love that 
visits the sense of taste ; and with the 
tones of tenderness that visit the ear. 
They are all so many attractions ap- 
plied to the enwrapped faculties, draw- 
ing them forth and connecting them 
with the world. And the process, thus 
and so early begun, goes on ; whether 
by direction or by chance : and if by 
wise and adequate direction, it goes on 
till every power of body, and mind, 
and heart, and soul, is fully developed ; 
and its just and healthful connexions 
established. 



10 AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 

In the broad view, there is an educa- 
tion for humanity ; a generic education, 
appropriate to the race, as possessing a 
physical, an intellectual, a moral, and 
an immortal nature. In a narrower 
view, there is an education appropriate 
to man; and there is an education 
appropriate to wonrtan, considered as 
created to sustain, in some respects, the 
same, and, in other respects, different 
relations. So far as the relations differ, 
the same education would be inappro- 
priate; and so far as the capabilities 
were adjusted, by the Creator, to the 
intended difference of relations, — and 
we are not among those who doubt 
this, — a like education would be absurd 
or impossible. No training, for exam- 
ple, could give to men the ideas, con- 
ceptions, sensibilities, which at once 
ennoble and empower woman in her 
sphere. And, if it were possible, in- 
stead of ennobling and empowering 



AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 11 

him, the effect would be to make him 
both weak and contemptible, — as the 
common sentiment of mankind, in both 
sexes, has ever pronounced effeminacy 
to be. 

With these preliminary remarks, 
then, on education in general, let us 
turn to the consideration of what 
ought to be sought in the education 
of woman. 

It is a self-evident truth, that her 
education should be in harmony with 
her nature, considered as possessing 
physical, intellectual, and moral facul- 
ties; and as destined to immortality. 
It should, furthermore, be in harmony 
with her sex, and her social and domes- 
tic sphere. No one, we should suppose, 
would consider that education proper 
and adequate which should neglect any 
part of her nature — either the under- 
standing, the memory, the conscience, 
or the affections, or the physical struc- 



12 AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 

tare. Taking it for granted, then, that 
all these departments are to be culti- 
vated, our first enquiry is : Has woman 
any distinctive characteristics which de- 
mand a modification of the system of 
culture which would be appropriate to 
man ? 

1st. As to her 'pliysicaU nature. 

That she possesses a m(yre delicate 
7^ organization than man is certain. That 
its proper development is a matter of 
more importance to herself and to so- 
ciety than the proper development of 
man, I believe, will be conceded. A 
badly-shapen body, for instance, as the 
result of the neglected or ill-directed 
physical education, is a greater calamity 
to woman than to man. It is also cer- 
tain that woman is more liable to sniffer 
in her physical development in the pre- 
sent state of society, than man. The 
youth of the male sex is passed more 
in the open air than that of woman ; 



AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 13 

the body is habited in greater freedom ; 
and the exercise which is allowed is 
more vigorous. 

From all this, it is obvious that 
greater attention and care are required 
in the physical education of woman 
than in that of man. The latter may 
go on spontaneously : the former must 
be attended to and provided for. Dan- 
gers must be guarded against, symp- 
toms must be watched, and timely 
counteractions must be applied. 

It were greatly to be wished, there- 
fore, that the sentiment of society were 
such that a system of physical activity, 
which should combine utility with ex- 
ertion, could be connected w^ith the 
intellectual training of female schools. 
If this cannot be done, the next best 
thing is a gymnasium, in which some 
portion of each day should be passed 
in muscular exercise in such loose and 
proper dress as will admit of any de- 

2 



14 AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 

sirable degree of activity and exertion. 
In cities, where space is too costly to 
admit of such estabhshments in con- 
, nexion with individual schools, they 
should be provided for the schools in 
common. Where, however, they are 
not to be had, the skilful and careful 
teacher will be the more assiduous in 
the use of such means as are in his 
power. 

Without further detaining you on 
this point let us consider, 

2dly. Whether woman has any dis- 
tinctive traits in her intellectual nature, 
which require a modification of the 
education appropriate to man. 

It is generally conceded, that woman 
is quicker in her perceptions than man, 
- — that she is more intuitive in her 
' judgments, and less patient of ratioci- 
native processes for reaching conclu- 
sions. Some one has remarked, in 
illustrating this characteristic, that he 



AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 15 

never ascended a flight of steps, that he 
did not find that some woman had got 
there before him; but the difiiculty 
was for her to tell how she got there. 

Now, it is the most important thing, 
certainly, to he there. , In that respect 
she is as well off as the man. And it 
may be admitted that in getting there 
first^ she has the advantage. But if 
she cannot tell how she got there, it is 
certainly very desirable she should 
know. It will hardly be contended, 
even bv those who are most inclined 
to worship, that it was by the aid of 
divinity within her; and those who 
are the least so disposed will scarcely 
venture to ascribe it to blunder. And 
if it really was done step by step, as 
we clumsy mortals have to climb, then 
it were well, certainly, for the sake of 
companionship, if nothing else, that she 
should learn to take one step at a time. 
Such leaping or hopping propensity, 



16 AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 

belonging as it does to instinct, rather 
than reason, we must confess we con- 
sider to be a defect rather than an 
excellence ; and that it calls for special 
attention in her education. It will not 
do, in any country where woman is the 
companion rather than the slave of 
man, to maintain that it is not im- 
portant that she should know how to 
think, reflect, reason, and judge. And 
if there be less aptitude or disposition, 
naturally, for these modes of mental 
activity, its correction demands the 
more attention from the teacher. He 
should be the more constantly vigilant 
for occasions, in all her studies, for 
calling the reasoning powers into ex- 
ercise. He should be the more con- 
stantly putting her on the why ? and 
the wlierefore? and calling for the ra- 
tiones et causas rerum, in what she 
studies. The mere memory-sy stem of 
teaching, — the tasking of a single fa- 



AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 17 

culty rather, without teaching at all, 
which has ever been the besettins; sin 
of teachers, — is, therefore, most unsuit- 
able and injurious in the education of 
females. 

Considering the peculiar dangers to 
which they are to be exposed in taking 
positions in life, the value of the rela- 
tions they are to sustain, and the im- 
portance of the influence they are to 
exert; it is certainly of the greatest 
moment that the reason and judgment 
should be educated to habits of cool, 
deliberate investigation ; and raised to 
the most perfect mastery over the im- 
pulsive elements of their nature, which 
skill and assiduity can give. 

Nor are the occasions and means for 
this sort of culture so limited in the 
occupations of the class-room as some 
suppose. When studies for cultivating 
the reasoning powers are spoken of 
they think of Euclid, and Lacroix ; 



18 AMEEICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 

they think of Butler's Analogy per- 
haps, or of Logic : studies that are not 
introduced to the attention of a young 
lady till she is on the verge of woman- 
hood, and on the verge of leaving 
school. And if these are the only 
studies which can be employed for de- 
veloping and strengthening the reason- 
ing faculty, then must she indeed, in 
nine cases in ten, go forth without 
that culture : for they are certainly 
not studies suitable for childhood. 

It is, however, a very great mistake 
to suppose that the studies which are 
adapted to childhood are not suited to 
the cultivation of the reasoning faculty. 
There is not one of them, — not even 
the mechanical art of j)enmanship, — 
that may not be made to minister to 
this purpose. The study of language, 
whether dead or living, foreign or ver- 
nacular, is admirably suited to the 
purpose, even for very young minds. 



AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION": 19 

The writer once took a little girl, 
between six and seven years old, with 
whom he made the experiment by in- 
struction in English Grammar; and, 
after giving her the definitions of the 
parts of speech, and the rules of the 
regular construction of the language, 
— both carefully freed from looseness 
and ambiguity of expression,— which 
she committed perfectly to memory, — 
he set her to parsing ; never correct- 
ing her mistakes himself, but requiring 
her to do it by bringing every thing 
to the test of her rules and defini- 
tions. The experiment satisfied him 
that the reasoning faculty may be, as 
successfullj? developed, and as rapidly 
developed at that early age as at any 
other ; and that no study is more hap- 
pily adapted to the object than the 
study of English Grammar, when pur- 
sued as it ought to be. Arithmetic, 
also, especially under the improved 



20 'AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 

forms of analysis in which it is now 
prepared, may be an eificient instru- 
ment for the same purpose. The study 
of some other than the vernacular 
tongue, is also well adapted to this 
object when it is pursued under the 
instruction of a teacher who has an 
interest in the improvement of his 
pupils, and the skill to excite and 
direct inquiry into the philosophy of 
language. It is on this account, espe- 
cially, that I would recommend a more 
general attention to the ancient lan- 
guages in female schools, rather than 
for the aid they give in the cultivation 
of the taste, or the door they open to 
stores of knowledge. 

We pass to consider, 

3dly. Whether woman has any dis- 
tinctive characteristics in her moral 
nature, which require to be considered 
in her education, and which call for a 



AMERICAN" FEMALE EDUCATION. 21 

modification of that which would be 
appropriate to the other sex. 

As an accountable and immortal 
being, the principles, the duties, and 
the affections of piety, should certainly 
constitute a part of her education. 

But loliat part or proportion, and in 
what manner applied or elicited, as 
compared with the care bestowed in 
this respect on the other sex, ought 
to depend on her comparative aptitude, 
or otherwise, for these affections and 
duties. That woman is less inclined 
to infidelity than man, and that she is 
more susceptible in her religious sensi- 
bilities than man, are facts which 
should not be overlooked in the mode 
and measure of her religious education. 
The very fact of her possessing a pro- 
clivity to religious faith, and finer sen- 
sibility than the other sex, not only 
supersedes the necessity — if necessity 
could in any case be supposed to exist 



22 AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 

— for any mechanism of human device 
for the purpose of giving intensity to 
her religious development ; but calls 
for the utmost care for the exclusion 
of it. 

If it can be taken for granted that 
the simply scriptural means of the de- 
velopment of the religious element are 
sufficient at all, it certainly should be 
taken for granted in the case of the 
tender sex ; and that especially in their 
tender years. The artificial soil of a 
hot-bed, the unnatural air of a hot- 
house, with artificial stimulating waters 
of irrigation, and unnatural light through 
stained or painted media, would not 
be recommended in horticulture, for a 
plant that might have its native soil 
and native air, with heaven's own un- 
perverted light, and strike its roots by 
fountains of living waters : nor can we 
expect the flavor from its fruit which 
its nature is adapted to produce. 



AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION". 23 

To drop the figure. That religious 
character in woman which is in har- 
mony with the sphere in which her 
Creator designed her to move, is best 
developed, with His blessing, by simple 
Bible truth applied to the understand- 
ing, to the conscience, and the affec- 
tions, in the same natural, matter-of- 
course way in which other truths and 
duties are presented : always taking 
care to give it the pre-eminence which 
its importance demands. 

The religious education should thus 
begin with the education of the under- 
standing. The reasons of faith should 
be given to the understanding, as it is 
able to receive them, and as soon as 
it is able to receive them. The laws 
of religion should be laid on the con- 
science, and its motives applied to the 
affections, amid the every-day duties 
and scenes of life : as having insepara- 
ble connexions with them, and as form- 



24 AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 

ing a part of the very necessities of 
human nature. 

It is in this way only, as we humbly 
conceive, that education can possibly 
develope a religious character which 
shall be, at the same time, rational, 
without being heartless, — and devout, 
without being superstitious. 

In what we say, it will be perceived, 
we take it for granted, that the truths 
of the Bible are sufficient for the deve- 
lopment of religious character. We do 
so, because the promise of God has 
been given, that his blessing shall 
attend them. " As the rain cometh 
down, and the snow from heaven, and 
returneth not thither, but watereth the 
earth, and maketh it bring forth and 
bud, that it may give seed to the sower 
and bread to the eater; so shall my 
toord be that goeth forth out of my 
mouth : it shall 7wt return unto me void" 

The truth of God — the truth which 



AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 25 

He himself has, "at sundry times and 
in divers manners," spoken by the pro- 
phets, by his Son, and by the apostles, 
— is the only divinely authorized, the 
only efficient, the only safe, the only 
possible appliance for the development 
of a religious character without injury 
to the intellect, or the conscience, or 
the affections, or the morals. The 
Scripture which is given by inspiration 
of God, and that only, is " profitable for 
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for 
instruction in righteousness, so that the 
man of God may be perfect, thoroughly 
furnished unto all good works :" — or, in 
other words, may be fitted or adapted 
to the duties and destinies for which 
God designed him. 

But we are speaking particularly of 
the religious education of the female 
sex. And, as we are speaking of edu- 
cation considered as committed to the 
professed teacher in the seminary, it is 

3 



26 AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 

a question of practical importance for 
us to consider, What ought to be done 
in this behalf by the educator; and, 
especially in the case of those whose 
religious interests are suffering though 
early neglect ? 

It would take up more of our time 
than is compatible with the accomplish- 
ment of our object, on the present occa- 
sion, to give our views fully on this 
question. In conformity with what has 
already been said, however, it may be 
anticipated, that we should not favor a 
system of urgency, stress, and violence, 
to remedy the evils of such neglect; 
that we should employ nothing hut reli- 
gions TRUTH for the purpose ; that we 
should give her, in connexion with the 
instructions of science and literature, a 
knowledge of the fundamental truths 
of religion : of the character of God ; 
of her relation to Him ; of her immor- 
tality ; of her accountability ; and of the 



AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 27 

ground of hope, and the motives to the 
affections and duties of piety which the 
gospel gives ; and that we should rely 
much on the influence of a genial reli- 
gious atmosphere surrounding the pupil, 
to give those truths the effects desired. 
They may not, indeed, spring up sud- 
denlv into fruit. But if the soil, so to 
speak, — the soil of the understanding 
and the heart, the sentiments and affec- 
tions, — be cultivated and attended to 
with due care, experience, confirming 
theory, has taught us to expect with 
confidence, favorable and happy results. 
The mind of woman, thus brought as 
it were, into the presence of God, and 
into the view of its immortality, and left 
free, and made to feel its responsibility; 
and realizing, as it belongs peculiarly to 
the sex to realize, its need of the love 
and the strength which are attainable 
only from piety, may be expected, with 
great confidence, to yield itself to God. 



28 AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 

If it does not, if it ^cill not, with such 
discipline, we confess ourselves to have 
no faith in any other. 

We have said, that the education 
of woman should be in harmony with 
her sex. 

To give this remark significancy, 
suppose you were to put her into the 
classes, and under the regimen of our 
colleges ; or, to the studies and the evo- 
lutions of the military art ; or, require 
her to study, for the sake of thorough 
accomplishment, the theory and prac- 
tice of surgery ; or that of physiology, 
pursued into the details of anatomy 
— knife in hand — in the dissecting- 
room. 

These are useful and necessary bran- 
ches of knowledge ; and m&ii pursue 
and practise them as in harmony with 
their nature, and belonging to their 
sphere. When woman appears in them, 
however, we feel that she is out of her 



AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 29 

place. And the more conspicuous she 
may appear, and the more she may 
shine in the kistre of her acquisitions, 
the more do the charms of womanhood 
suffer an echpse. They may compel us 
to admire, hut they will not incline us 
to love. 

Character, as the product of educa- 
tion, is partly the result of the know- 
ledge acquired ; partly the result of the 
notions, opinions, sentiments formed; 
and in part the result of the aspira- 
tions fostered. When we say that the 
education of woman should be in har- 
mony with her sex, we mean that the 
knowledge imparted, the sentiments 
formed, and the aspirations fostered, 
should all be appropriate to female 
character. 

She should not be so educated as to 
make her ambitious of plucking the 
laurels of war, or shining in public de- 
bate ; nor should she be educated to 

3* 



30 AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 

any sentiments or aspirations which 
conflict with her destined relations to 
life. God has made her a woman, and 
not a man ; and He has assigned her 
position : and her education ought to be 
so conducted that she shall feel it to be 
for her interest and her happiness, most 
comprehensively considered, to occupy 
that position. And any instruction or 
discipline appealing either to her physi- 
cal, intellectual, or moral nature, which 
would make her unhappy in taking 
that position, or lead her to feel that 
she would be more happy, or more ac- 
ceptable to her Maker, in taking any 
other ; we regard as not only a wrong 
done to society and to the individual, 
but a crime against nature, and a re- 
proach to nature's God. He made her 
neither to be above man nor below 
him ; to be neither his ruler nor his 
slave ; nor did He make her to be an 
anchoress, — too holy to be associated 



AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 31 

with him ; but he made her to be his 
companion — " an help-wee^ for him" — 
( in the domestic sphere. That sphere 
to her is the sphere of wife and mother. 
Her education also should be in har- 
mony with that sphere, and it should 
tend to fit her for it. It should aim to 
make her such a woman as, without 
any remodeling and recasting, may fill 
and adorn that niche in the social 
structure, when the fortunes of her life 
may place her there. 

And do you ask w^hat we consider 
education has to do with making a 
good wife and mother ? You will, per- 
haps, say that this matter belongs ra- 
ther to the domestic sphere than to the 
school. There is certainly much force 
in the remark. And what is so often 
said — that a good wife must be sought 
where the domestic influences are what 
they ought to be, and is seldom to 
be found where they are defective, is 



32 AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 

mainly true. A daughter who has heen 
reared in habits of indolence, or selfish- 
ness, or self-indulgence, or disorder, for 
example, is very apt to carry these 
evils, from the family in which she was 
reared, into the family of which she is 
to be the head. And there is no certain 
and effectual remedy for them, perhaps, 
by teachers, in cases where domestic 
influences had been in the wrong direc- 
tion from the cradle, and are still coun- 
terworking their endeavors. And so, 
on the other hand, where the influences 
have been what they ought to be, much 
may be expected from them to super- 
sede the necessity of the constant vigi- 
lance and earnest exertion called for in 
the former cases. 

Still, it is to be remembered, that 
the pupil is in the formative process 
throughout the period of her education ; 
that habits injurious or unsuitable are 
easily fallen into, through mere inatten- 



AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION". 33 

tion, — " facilis descensus Averni ;" and 
that constant care — especially in the 
Boarding School — and constant admo- 
nitions are therefore necessary even to 
secure the confirmation of those correct 
habits, the foundations of which were 
laid in early domestic precept and ex- 
ample. 

We maintain, therefore, that instruc- 
tions on topics of this sort, are really 
among the most important to a young 
lady's prospects that can be given. And 
I am the more disposed to insist on 
this, because the importance of correct 
habits and right notions to the young 
lady, in advance of her entrance into 
married life, is not properly appre- 
ciated, even by those who have the 
inestimable treasure of these habits to 
carry forward with them ; and least of 
all, by those who most need it. With 
a very large class of young ladies the 
great question is. How to catch a hus- 



34 AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 

band — not, How to keep him. They 
do not consider, that though the first 
question is an important one, the latter 
is more so. There are many things 
that are excellent as hait, that are good 
for nothing as ties. A fine form, a 
beautiful face, a graceful carriage, a 
sweet smile, are good things ; a good 
understanding and a well stored mind 
are still better. But if the former be 
rendered unsightly, it will be both a 
bitterness and a mortification to the 
husband, to call to mind the beauty 
that captivated the lover. Grant that 
love is blind to blemishes that are jDlain 
to other eyes, it cannot endure a cheat. 
And the young lady who is always 
what she ought to be, w^hen visible to 
her husband, hefore marriage, and never 
afterwards, will find no amount of 
beauty, and no amount of intelligence 
sufficient to retain the heart which was 
won by hypocrisy. 



AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION". 35 

However crazy a man may be when 
in love, he comes to his senses after he 
is married ; and he will then esteem the 
qualities of his wife very much as other 
people do. 

" Those clouds that shade your blooming face 
A little water might displace. 
Those tresses, as the raven black, 
That waved in ringlets down your back, 
Uncombed, uninjured, by neglect 
Destroy the face which once they deck'd. 
Whence this forge tfulness of dress ? 
But, — ah ! you're married, madam : — ' Yes I' " 

We lay down the position, then, in 
concluding this part of our subject, that 
it should be a prominent part of female 
education to give right ideas of what 
a wife and mother ought to be ; and to 
form those habits of industry, economy, 
punctuality, order, and neatness, and 
cultivate those affections and tempers, 
on which the happiness of the domestic 
sphere depends. 



36 AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 

All that we have thus far said, we 
consider as true and important in rela- 
tion to woman every lohere. 

It remains for us to speak of what 
we consider important in the education 
of American females especially. 

Although education, so far as it re- 
spects the development of the faculties 
of the mind, and so far as it respects 
the domestic relations, ought to be the 
same every where, because the laws 
of mind are universal, and because the 
domestic relations are universal ; yet, 
so far as it respects opinions, tastes, 
sympathies, and intellectual furniture, 
it should be conducted with regard to 
the national and social relations of the 
individual. In other lands where one 
is born to rule, and another to obey ; 
where one is born to the leisure and 
the temptations of wealth ; and another 
to poverty and toil, by a destiny which 
no elements of personal character suf- 



AMERICAN FEx¥ALE EDUCATION. 37 

fice to change ; a Fenelon or a More 
may give sound instruction which is 
impertinent to common ears. But in a 
country which knows no majesty, but 
that of God and virtue ; which acknow- 
ledges no aristocracy, but that of in- 
tellect ; which enjoys the unparalleled 
privilege of pursuing, unbiassed and 
unimpeded, the great objects of human 
existence ; liere^ education should be 
strictly and fully conformed to the 
nature and destiny of man as a moral, 
intellectual, and immortal being : devel- 
oping and strengthening every faculty, 
in every class of the community ; and 
preparing every individual, to the ut- 
most extent of which he is capable, for 
the career of dignity, usefulness, and 
happiness, which is open before him. 

This proposition with res|)ect to the 
^ stronger sex, has long been admitted, 
^ and often insisted on. 

But with respect to female education, 
4 



38 AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 

I lament to say, that, among the more 
wealthy portion of the community, it 
has been virtually denied. In alarm- 
ingly numerous instances, it has been 
abandoned to all the perversion which 
an infatuated partiality for every thing 
that is foreign could devise. And, for 
the general mass of humbler life, a few 
simple elements have been thought suf- 
ficient. And the work of imparting these 
has too often been committed to per- 
sons altogether inadequate to the requi- 
sitions of the American destiny. While 
the subject of a liberal education for 
our sons, has been made one of the 
most prominent topics of interest -, 
while those who have given directions 
and tone to public sentiment have been 
free in the expenditure of their private 
resources in individual benefactions, 
and free in the bestowment of public 
funds by legislative grants, for the 
erection and endowment of academies, 



AMEllICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 39 

lyceums, manual labor schools, gymna- 
siums, colleges and uaiversities ; while 
we have consecrated, without scruple, 
to the business of instruction in them, 
the most exalted intellects of our coun- 
try ; while we have been eager in the 
adoption of every improvement in the 
sciences, or in the mode of teaching 
them, which the investigations of either 
continent have brought to light ; and 
have, without hesitation, carried our 
pupils up through the loftiest regions 
of the abstract sciences ; and have 
thought no science amiss, and no time 
amiss, and no expense amiss, that 
might discipline and ennoble their 
minds, and fit them to act well their 
part as members of this growing Re- 
public ; — vv^hile w^e have done all this 
for our sons, what have we done — 
until within a very few years — for our 
daughters ? Why, we have alloiced 
to be established, in and around our 



40 AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 

cities* and large towns, day schools and 
boarding schools, by individual enter- 
prise ; to be conducted on any system 
or principle which any proprietor, pos- 
sessing any grade of capacity or quali- 
fication, might choose to adopt; or, 
without any system or principle at all. 
And we have allow^ed all, who chose, 
to enter the profession of teachers of 
females, only taking the liberty, like 
true republicans, to show our preference 
for what was foreign. And we have 
allowed our daughters — the sisters of 
our collegians — to go and learn what 
might chance to be taught ; making 
what choice they pleased, both of schools 
and of studies, and, in most instances, — 
especially in the fashionable circles of our 
cities, where wealth is at once a power and 
a peril requiring the guides and safe- 
guards of a thorough training, — we have 
allowed them to remain till they were 



AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 41 

old enough to hegin to comprehend what 
was taught ; and then we have allowed 
them to " turn out/' to be the arbi tres- 
ses of our domestic happiness, and of 
our national character. 

The consequences of this penurious 
"^and insensate partiaHty have been such 
as might be expected. The sphere of 
instructioUj for the better half of so- 
ciety, which ought to be filled by the 
first talent in our country, has been 
filled, in fact, even for some of our 
principal cities, and most influential 
portions of our population, with every 
thing which has chosen to enter it. 
Hence we have had female seminaries 
conducted by professional men as mere 
secondary objects of their attention ; by 
professional men who had not talent to 
succeed in the professions to which they 
were bred ; but who, we have thought, 
though they had not wit enough to be 
entrusted with the care of our souls, 

4* 



42 AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 

bodies, or estates, "would do" to teach 
our daughters ; by men who have been 
educated as merchants, or mechanics; 
and by females whom misfortune has 
struck from the sphere of wealth, and 
compelled, not only unwilling but un- 
skilled, to teach for bread. 

In the competition which has been 
awakened for patronage, the want of a 
proper care and a just discrimination, 
on the part of the public, has stimu- 
lated the hopes of the undeserving ; 
appeals have been made to cupidity, to 
pride, and to indulgence ; and discipline 
has been sacrificed to favor. And thus, 
not unfrequently have we seen the 
unprincipled pretender flooded with 
patronage, while the truly meritorious 
have had the mortification of having 
their competency overlooked, and their 
fidelity disregarded : and have been 
obliged, either to descend into competi- 
tion with all the ignorance, stupidity, 



AMEEICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 43 

and importunity wliich surrounded 
them ; or^ to abandon a sphere of ac- 
tion, on the proper occupancy of which 
depend the character and prosperity of 
their country. 

* Evils, it is said, work their own 
cure. But sometimes one evil only 
makes way for another. And so it has 
been in this case. The deficiencies of 
our means of education have been seen 
by a class of men renowned in the old 
world for their skill in training the 
young to their own purposes ; who are 
ever willing to teach wherever they 
may control ; and who, sustained by 
the gold of a foreign spiritual despo- 
tism, are willing to make every provi- 
sion for the education of our daughters, 
for no other reward than the surrender 
of our civil and religious freedom ! 



* This passage on Romanist schools was not de- 
livered at the Smith. Inst. 



44 AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 

To meet these deficiencies the choi- 
cest sites have been selected ; and beau- 
tiful edifices are rising all over our 
land : and teachers, trained behmd the 
grates of European convents to a blind 
submission both to civil and ecclesiasti- 
cal tyranny, and an abhorrence of the 
principles both of our religion and our 
government, are already occupying these 
enchanting retreats ; and smiling most 
winningly from their portals on the 
descendants of the Huguenots, of the 
Puritans, and of- the martyrs of Smith- 
field !* 

* The occasional discussions between the fiery and 
the more politic sections of the Catholic Church, 
bring out revelations which are carefully kept back 
under ordinary circumstances. The Shepherd of the 
Valley, a Catholic paper of St. Louis, has been called 
to account by the Catholic Herald for its incautious 
avowal of Catholic principles in their application to 
this country. The Shepherd of the Valley replies to 
the Herald. The way in which this '* Shepherd'' 
would butcher the Protestant flock, is set forth in thia 
extract on the doctrine of " toleration :'' 



AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 45 

And the lure has taken effect. And 
why should it not? It is foreign; 
it is novel; it is '^economical;'' and it 

" Well, then, is this doctrine of toleration a Chris- 
tian doctrine, or is it not ? does it come from heaven, 
or hell ; from God, or the Devil ? do we see any thing 
of it in the Bible, in the Fathers, in the actions or 
writings of the saints, in the treatises of the doctors 
of the Church ? was it heard of before the birth of 
Protestantism ? has it not been condemned by the 
Council 0^ Constance, and repeatedly by the Supreme 
Pontiffs ? is it any thing more than a convenient 
theory, got up that Catholics living amongst Protest- 
ants may meet with less ill-will ? are not the French 
philosophers and their disciples its most zealous advo- 
cates ? is not Gibbon full of it ? has it ever had any 
thing more than a theoretical existence, except where 
it has been practically impossible to carry into active 
operation the principles which it condems ? was St. 
Thomas right when he said, that ' it is a much worse 
thing to corrupt the faith, by which life is given to 
the soul, than to falsify money, which is an assistance 
to the temporal life V did he reason correctly from 
these premises when he argued that temporal princes 
might justly punish convicted heretics ? may ive not 
expect the Church and Christian riders to act again as 
they have acted ? is it not our boast thai the Church 
NEVER CHANGES, and is not her history an open book, 



46 AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 

gives US an occasion to show our libe- 
rality ! 

But, my countrymen ! Fathers and 
mothers of America ! Children of men 



which all may read, which we cannot close if we 
would, and of which we are accustomed to say that 
we have no cause to be ashamed? 

'* We will say, however, that we are not in favor 
of roasting heretics, and that, if this sort of work is 
to be revived — though in our miserable times it is 
quite impossible, since men have no belief which 
they care to propagate, or for which they dare endure 
— if persecution is to be renewed, we should rather 
be its victims than its agents ; but we are not, there- 
fore, going to deny the facts of history, or to blame the 
saints of God and the doctors and pastors of the Church 
for what they have done and sanctioned. We say that 
the temporal punishment of heresy is a mere question 
of expediency ; that Protestants do not persecute us 
here, simply because they have not the power ; and 
that where we abstain from persecuting iliem they are 
well aware thai it is merely because wc cannot do so, or 
think that, by doing so, \oe shoidd injure the cause that 
we wish to serve." — N. Y. Recorder, May 12, 1852, 

Sacred God ! is this thy gospel ? and are these the 
principles in which so many of our public men seem 
anxious to have the future nLot^;>rs of this country 
educated ? 



AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 47 

who fled jftom the prison, the gibbet 
and the stake, to savage wilds for the 
enjoyment of religious liberty ; and to 
give life and freedom to you ! how can 
you esteem so lightly your blood-bought 
birthright as to fling it back into the 
very jaws of the seven-headed beast 
from which it was saved by their volun- 
tary exile ? Nay, rather, why will you 
beckon to the very refuge they gave you 
the unchangeably remorseless power 
from which they fled ; and commit your 
tender offspring to its care ? 

Mysterious infatuation ! worse than 
pagan cruelty ! Christian parents caus- 
ing their children to pass through the 
fire to a Moloch, whose acceptable offer- 
ings are " slaves and souls of men /" Eev. 
xviii. 13. 

The Hindoo mother, ignorant of the 
living God, devotes her helpless babe 
to the jaws of the crocodile : a moment 
jf anguish, one piercing shriek, and all 



48 AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 

is over. On her part, it W5is the reli- 
gious oblation of a benighted mind : 
and the child has passed from the trou- 
bled waters of the Ganges to the calm 
of heaven. But you deliver up your 
child to influences that may unfit her 
for the duties and enjoyments of the 
present life ; that may lead her to a 
refuge of lies for her religious trust; 
that may rob her of a "good hope 
through grace" in a dying hour, and of 
" everlasting consolation" in the life to 
come. 

What commendation does not such a 
procedure deserve ! What wonderful 
patriotism does it evince ! A republi- 
can parent, you commit the hope of 
your country to the moulding hands of 
the passive minions of a despotic foreign 
power ! What admirable consistency : — 
prizing religious liberty yourself above 
all price, you commit your child to the 
instruction of those who teach that, in 



AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 49 

matters of religion, the exercise of pri- 
vate judgment is a sin ! 

What tender affection ! Grasping the 
Bible, as the lamp of life for your own 
path, you select for your teachers those 
who will withhold it from your child. 

What praiseworthy adherence to reli- 
gious 'princiijile ! Blessed with the light 
of the ever glorious Eeformation, you 
expose your daughter to the prose- 
ly tism of the power which, in its efforts 
to quench that light, drenched Europe 
in blood. 

What confiding charity I Denounced 
as a heretic yourself, you commit your 
child to the care of those who tell you 
they keep no faith with heretics. 

And w^iat shall we say of that mere?/, 
which, after having learned from God's 
own word that it is "not by works of 
righteousness that we have done, but 
according to his mercy he saved us ;" 
that there is but " one Mediator Idc- 

5 



50 AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 

tween God and man, the man Christ 
Jesus ;" and that " by deeds of law 
there shall no flesh be justified in his 
sight;" places a young immortal, the 
child of its own bosom, and that too in 
the season of its tenderest susceptibili- 
ties, under the instructions of those who 
surround their devotions with the most 
fascinating and imposing splendor, but 
who worship* a woman as the Queen 
of heaven ; trust to their works of 
penance and mortification for their ac- 



* Princely Presents by the Queen of Spain.— 
Queen Isabella of Spain has given to the image of 
" Our Lady of Atocha" an imperial crown of fine 
gold set -with diamonds and Brazilian topazes, the 
whole worth $750,000; to the image of the Saviour, 
at the same shrine, a similar crown, though of course 
smaller in size ; and two bouquets of the size of a 
man's hand, of pure diamonds. For these things, 
the Queen paid the jeweller Lovia the enormous sum 
of $1,500,000. The statues have been adorned with 
them and placed on an altar where the public can 
see them ; four soldiers constantly keep guard before 
the shvino.— May 12, 1852. 



AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 51 

ceptance with God ; and rely on the 
intercession of saints and martyrs ; and 
who will tell her that there is no salva- 
tion for her without obedience to human 
tradition, submission to papal authority, 
and communion with Rome ! 

Thank Heaven, that the eyes of our 
people are beginning to open to this 
absurd folly and unnatural sin. 

Yet we confess that we are not with- 
out our fear that a misjudging reliance 
on the increase of light and on the 
transforming influence of our free insti- 
tutions may yet betray — as, to some 
extent, it already has done — a portion 
of the more wealthy and worldly of our 
citizens into an encouragement of fur- 
ther experiments on the credulity and 
forbearance of American Protestantism. 

It is agreeable to the best feelings 
of our nature to exercise liberality, and 
it is ungracious to distrust professions 
of friendship. But we should at least 



52 AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 

recollect, and credit Kome's own profes- 
sions. Her system is unchangeable : 
and the saying of one of her own pagan 
bards might fitly become the motto of 
her Christian escutcheon : 

" Coelum, non animum mutant qui trans mare 
eurrunt." 

She will be the same in the new world 
that she has been in the old : and 
though she may coquette with our 
democracy, she will never wed with 
our freedom. It is preposterous, there- 
fore, to suppose that, if entrusted with 
the education of the future arbi tresses 
of our national destiny, she will foster 
the freeborn genius either of our reli- 
gion or government. 

While I am on this subject of our 
national follies in this matter of Ameri- 
can female education, I may as well 
finish my tribute to them, by referring 



AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 55 

to another evil of serious and threaten- 
ing magnitude, as to the cJiaracter of 
the education which is gaining favor 
with the wealthier portion of our citi- 
zens, and in our cities especially : I 
mean a fondness for French — French 
language, French teachers, and French 
manners. And nothing will answer, 
therefore, but French schools. 

I would not be thought to sympa- 
thize altogether with the stern spirit of 
the Roman censor, who, in his fear 
that the learning and luxury of Greece 
would destroy the valor and simplicity 
of the Romans, carried his antipathy 
to whatever was Grecian so far as to 
oppose the teaching of her language. 
But I do confess I feel myself more 
inclined to approve than to condemn 
his conduct in relation to her philo- 
sophy. 

It is related that, during the censor- 
ship of Cato, there arrived at Rome 

5* 



54 AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 

two ambassadors from Athens ; both of 
them teachers of Grecian philosophy : 
Carneades the academician, and Dio- 
genes the stoic. The distinguishing 
tenet of the former was universal scep- 
ticism ; and that of the Latter, universal 
indifference. 

The Eoman youth beheld and heard 
them with wonder and delight. Espe- 
cially were they charmed with the 
eloquence, and the graceful manners 
of the sceptic, who drew around him 
an auditory of the politest persons in 
Rome. The report spread through 
the city that " there was come from 
Greece a man of astonishing powers. 
In a public discourse, he had given 
an accurate and judicious dissertation 
upon justice: but, in another speech, 
confuted all the arguments he had 
advanced ; and apparently gave no ex- 
istence to the virtue he had so much 
commended." 



AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 55 

The youth, captivated by his elo- 
quence, forgot all their pleasures and 
diversions, and ran mad after philo- 
sophy. 

And the Komans were quite de- 
lighted to have it so. But the aged 
Censor, alarmed, the historian tells us, 
for the influence of such philosophy 
over the rising generation, hastened to 
the Senate, and complained of the ma- 
gistrates for detaining so long such am- 
bassadors as those, who could persuade 
the people to whatever they pleased. 
And, closing with all possible despatch 
the business of their embassy, he dis- 
missed them from the country. To 
dissuade his own son from such studies, 
he remarked, in a tone at once ora- 
cular and prophetic, that " When the 
Ttomans came tliorouglily to imbibe the 
Grecian literature, they looiild lose the 
empire of the world!' In relation to 
this prediction, Plutarch, — himself a 



56 AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 

Greek, at the head of a school at 
Rome, — observes, that "time has shown 
the vanity of that invidious asser- 
tion : for Rome was never at a higher 
pitch of greatness than when she was 
most perfect in the Grecian erudi- 
tion." 

But his translator, in a note on this 
assertion, has more wisely and truly 
remarked, that " Rome had, indeed, a 
very extensive empire in the Augustan 
a.ge : but, at the same time, she lost Iter 
ancient constitution, and her liberty. 
Not that the learning of the Romans 
contributed to that loss, but their irre- 
ligion; their luxury, and their corrup- 
tion,'' which had been imported from 
her polished neighbors. 

That this irreligion, luxury, and cor- 
ruption was the fruit of the philosophy 
she received from them, history has 
abundantly shown. 

And, if the lessons of history were 



AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 57 



more efficacious than they have been, 
in giving wisdom, we should have less 
fear of this inordinate fondness for 
whatever is French. But it is a law 
that sways the moral world as well as 
the natural — that, like causes produce 
like effects. That which you present 
to your daughter as a paragon, it is 
vain for you to deny her as an example. 
If you teach her that, in order to be 
a perfect lady, she must read French 
literature, copy French manners, and 
follow French fashions; and that, after 
all that France can do for her on this 
side the water, she must, if she would 
be "perfect and entire, wanting no- 
thing," go and take a seasoning from 
the atmosphere of Paris ; — if you can 
do all this, and yet expect her to 
possess the principles, predilections, 
and virtues, which should characterize 
the American wife and mother; then 
you must expect what never yet has 



58 AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 

been ; and oievcr vnll he, till nature 
has so changed tliat men may gather 
grapes from thorns, and figs from 
thistles. 

What are the requisites of an Ameri- 
can female education ? Granting the 
utmost that may be demanded for re- 
finement — for taste and skill in the 
arts ; for ease and grace of manners ; 
there still 'remains to be supplied the 
whole pith and substance of the moral 
and the national character. A know- 
ledge and love of her duties to her God ; 
a knowledge and love of her country, 
and its institutions ; the knowledge of 
domestic duties ; and the culture of the 
domestic affections, with habits of sober 
thought and practical common sense ; — 
these, whatever else may be necessary 
or desirable, are indispensable requi- 
sites of the education of those who 
would properly fill the place of Ameri- 
can wives and mothers. 



AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 59 

And are these necessary features of 
American character to be best attained 
by casting the precious material of our 
country's hope in the mould of Paris? 
Are we, as a people, unable to supply 
our own wants ? Is it beyond our 
power to find, or to rear instructers, 
of American birth and feeling, for our 
daughters ; and are we reduced to the 
necessity of patronizing, and, by submit- 
ting to the most extravagant charges, 
of encouraging the establishment of 
schools bv foreiofners to do the w^ork 
of American education ? 

Is it because our daughters will better 
acquire a knowledge of their Creator 
from a people who have denied his 
existence ; and better learn to revere 
his name in schools where they hear 
that name perpetually repeated as an 
unmeaning expletive of fashionable chit- 
chat ? 

We wish to have them virtuous : 



60 AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 

must we therefore have them taught 
morality by a people with whom the 
marriage tie is a chord of gossamer; 
virtue, a jest; and libertinism, gal- 
lantry ! 

We wish them to be pious and intel- 
ligent : must we therefore commit them 
to the care of those whose religion is 
a bloody formalism; and whose philo- 
sophy is atheistic ? 

We wish to have them taught to 
appreciate the sufferings, wisdom, and 
heroic piety of our fathers, whose vir- 
tues were the basis of our national free- 
dom and happiness : and we expect it 
to be done by those who have been 
born and bred under the influence of a 
government and a religion at least as 
hostile to the distinguishing traits of 
character of those fathers, as were the 
government and religion which exiled 
them ! 

We wish to inspire them with the 



AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 61 

love of rational liberty, republican sim- 
plicity, and religious tolerance : we, 
therefore commit them to the tutelage 
of the disciples of Voltaire and Diderot ; 
the worshipers of Napoleon ; and the 
missionaries of the Propaganda ! 

We wish them rightly to estimate 
the dignity and importance of the 
domestic sphere of woman ; and to un- 
^ iderstand and love the sober duties and 
quiet pleasures of home : and we there- 
fore place them under the care of a 
people who are proverbially strangers 
to the joys of the family fireside ; and 
who, in their love of tumultuous excite- 
ment, feel most at home when abroad, 
in the cafe, the opera, and the theatre. 

It is through the operation of such 
notions and practices as I have anim- 
adverted upon that the moral sensi- 
tiveness, which once characterized our 
people, has been wearing away from 
the higher classes of this country. 

6 



62 AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 

In religion, the simplicity which once 
distinguished them is giving place to 
the ceremonies and parade which form 
the most convenient substitute for vital 
piety. In Tiiorals, licentiousness, instead 
of being looked upon with abhorrence 
as a sin against God, and a crime to be 
punished by the laws, has become the 
besetting sin of wealth and fashion. 

In the family, the knowledge of do- 
mestic affairs is coming to be regarded 
as vulgar. Habits of indolence and ex- 
travagance, in the one sex, are at once 
deterring the other from entering into 
the married state, and aggravating the 
evils of licentiousness and prodigality 
among them. The love of excitement 
is filling the land with a polluted lite- 
rature. The love of indulgence is fill- 
ing our cities with every species of 
temptation : with houses for intempe- 
rance and gluttony ; with oyster saloons 
for ladies ; confectioneries for children ; 



AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 63 



with gambling-houses for the ruin of 
the heirs of wealth and fashion ; and 
with houses of assignation for the ruin 
of the daughters of poverty. 

It is but too evident that a deadly 
disease has seized on the vitals of the 
nation. The health of our republican 
simplicity and ancestral virtue is fading 
away : and, without an early applica- 
tion of some powerful remedy, the day 
is not distant when every vice that 
riots in the rotten nations of the old 
world will find a secure and quiet home 
in this. 

What then is the remedy ? We an- 
swer, a truly American female educa- 
tion ! As we have stated in the outset 
of this lecture, woman is not only the 
index, but the arbitress of national cha- 
racter and destiny. She — not your po- 
litician — holds the fate of our country ! 
Let our male population grow up with- 
out such influences as woman only can 



64 AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 

bring to bear, in their childhood and 
youth , and then let her be unfitted to 
influence them to the right, afterwards ^ 
and it is neither masculine wisdom nor 
masculine prowess that can save our 
country from corruption, dissension, 
strife, anarchy, and blood. 

Let all who love their country and 
its institutions bear in mind, then, the 
stake which is at issue ; and see to it 
that they give their influence in the 
right direction. Let us have American 
schools for the education of Americans ; 
and American "principles taught, and 
an American spirit cherished in them. 
Give to female education its relative 
importance. Raise it to the dignity of a 
NATIONAL INTEREST : let scliools for the 
education of the sex be so organized 
and so multiplied that all may have it 
in their power to receive their benefits. 
Let corporate action and individual 
liberality emulate each other in pro- 



AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION". 65 

viding, in all parts of our country, for 
the most thorough and extensive edu 
cation which is appropriate to the sex. 
Let the schools occupy the choicest 
locations, as to healthfulness and beauty 
of scenery. Let them have the most 
ample means for physical as well as 
mental and moral education. Let the 
course of studies, the instructions, and 
discipline, be national — religious — so- 
cial — domestic : national, without being 
clownish; religious, without being sec- 
tarian ; social, not exclusive. And 
throw their portals wide and free to all 
who wish to enter them. 

And when you have provided the 
means of an education adequate to our 
national exigences, your next care 
should be for suitable teacliers. 

Do not commit the formation of 
American female character to any thing 
and every thing that may be willing to 
undertake the work. It is loortliy of 

6* 



66 AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 

the best talent of the land ; and its pro- 
per execution demands not only talent 
and science, but the most enlightened 
piety and the truest patriotism. 

Education does not consist in enjoin- 
ing a task and hearing a lesson. When 
done to any purpose, it brings mind 
into pressure upon mind, and heart 
upon heart : and the pupil, like the 
Iceland crystal, for ever shows the 
double image — the type of his own in- 
dividuality blended with that of his 
master. No one can, tvitJi safety, he 
entrusted witli the formation of the youth- 
ful mind, in this country, either whose 
o^eligious convictions or ichose 2^oIitical 
sympathies are not in harmony with the 
great iwinciples of our constitution. 

The people of all lands are among 
us, — or are coming. And we bid them 
welcome to share with us the bless- 
ings we enjoy : welcome to our land ; 
welcome to our freedom, civil and 



AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATIOISr. 67 

reljgious ; and welcome to all the 
benefits of our means and fiicilities of 
education. 

But, in the name of sacred Liberty, 
let that suffice. Or if, in the exercise 
of the freedom to which the genius of 
our country welcomes to the rights of 
citizenship the people of every religion 
and clime, they loill segregate their 
own youth ; and educate them as, for 
their own sake and for our country's 
sake, we would not have them edu- 
cated; in Freedom's name, we say 
again, let that suffice. Or, if it be ne- 
cessary, from our social or commercial 
relations, to make their languages a 
part of the course of studies in Ameri- 
can schools, by all means let it be done 
by those who can do it most effectually. 
Whatever is necessary to be done, — 
whether it be instruction in the French, 
on the Atlantic slope, or the Chinese, 
on the Pacific, — let it be done by those 



68 AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 

who can do it best. But, if our fathers 
did wisely by demanding an avowed 
attachment to their periled liberty from 
those whom they put at the head of 
their armies; if they demanded a sworn 
allegiance to our institutions from those 
who fill the offices of State ; and even 
required American birth from those en- 
trusted with the highest; how much 
more should we be careful as to the 
principles and the sympathies of those 
who are to give form and direction to 
the minds and manners of our rising 
generations : and especially of the sex 
whose influence must determine our 
national character. 

With the views I entertain, then, of 
the exigences of our country, and the 
philosophy of educational influences, 
were I a Committee of Examination; 
I would take the Bible in one hand and 
the Constitution in the other; and, ap- 
proaching the candidate for the high 



AMERICAN" FEMALE EDUCATION. 69 

and holy trust, I would say to him : 
" These are the pillars of our temple 
of freedom : Do you accept them ? Do 
you love them ? Will you teach them ? 
Will you imbue these daughters of 
America with their principles? Will 
you cherish in them the freeborn spirit? 
Will you teach them to think^ and rea- 
son, and judge, and searcli for truth ? 
Will you teach them to esteem intelli- 
gence above wealth ; to look more upon 
w^orth than station ; to frown on vice 
though high, and to reverence virtue 
though humble ? Will you teach them 
the science and the art of s<sZ/-govern- 
ment? Will you inspire them with 
reverence for law ; for God and truth ; 
with a love for their country, for its 
institutions, its history, and its trea- 
sured names ?" And, when I had ob- 
tained a hearty affirmative to these 
questions, and not till then, would I 
examine his credentials as to his com- 



70 AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATTDN-. 

petency in the divine scitiia^ and his 
fitness for the nohle art of teaching. 

I have thus, fellow-citizens, stated 
what I consider as some of the more 
prominent wants of American female 
education ; and some of the errors 
which we are committing in regard 
to it. 

There are two other errors which 
must be corrected before female educa- 
tion can do for the country what its 
welfare demands. 

If the views we have presented be 
correct, the office of teacher and direc- 
tor of female education calls for an 
order of talent, and a degree of ac- 
quirements, second to none in the 
service of the public. But, until that 

office is hetter rewarded, and onoix 
■''7 

honored, it will be rather shunned than 

sought by the grade of talent which it 

needs. 

The other error is, the early removal 



AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 71 

of young ladies from school. And it is 
an error so great and so fatal that, 
if our schools and our teachers were 
every thing we could wish them to be, 
it would still be impossible, as a general 
thing, to develope, form, and strengthen 
their character as the exigences of their 
position in life require, at an age so 
young as that in which fashion calls 
young ladies away from their studies. 

But I have too long detained you, 
and must close. 

It is in the power — it is novo in the 
power — of the mothers of this country, 
to regenerate and save it. Nay, it is in 
the power of a comparatively small por- 
tion of them to do it. It is the elite, in 
all countries, that give tone to thought, 
and feeling, manners, and morals : and 
it is pre-eminently in their power to do 
it, by a right example, in this country 
where hereditary distinctions interpose 



72 AMERICAN FEMALE EDUCATION. 



no barrier to the sympathies ^ where 
wealth is an accredited source of power ; 
where the hope of it is a universal 
stimulus ; and where the richest and 
the poorest are every where bound 
together by the ties of blood. 

Let me say, in concluding, to my 
fair countrywomen : You hold in your 
hands the destinies of the most glorious 
land on earth. In spite of the wisdom 
of Senates, in spite of the prowess of 
the battle-field, it is yours to decide 
the question of the permanency of its 
institutions. 

It is yours to mould the mind of 
man ; to form his tastes ; to control his 
pleasures; to win him from his dangers; 
to strengthen his virtues; and, when 
" blind ambition downward pours for 
that which shines above," to direct his 
aspirations "to substantial happiness 
and true renown." 



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